1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to cabinets and in particular cabinets having assemblies for mounting doors of the cabinets in such a manner that the doors can be swung opened and subsequently moved rearwardly or pocketed into the cabinet proper.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, cabinets for use in office and other environments have doors for closing off open fronts of the cabinets. Typically, a door is hinged at one of its sides adjacent a side wall of the cabinet, swings toward a worker opening it and can be subsequently pushed side-ways to secure work space in front of the cabinet pursuant to movement of articles in and out of the same. However, in such position, the door may interfere with other work being performed in the work environment. In addition, in crowded work environments, the extent to which the door can be opened may be limited thus restricting work space in front of the cabinet.
To eliminate the above-identified problems associated with cabinets having conventional hinged doors, some of today's cabinets are designed with pocketing assemblies permitting rearward movement of the open-out doors into the cabinets adjacent side walls of the same. In this stored or pocketed position of the doors, the same are in positions out of interference with work being performed in and around the cabinets. Cabinets with pocketing doors are disclosed in Stone U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,612, issued Mar. 8, 1988; Wilmer et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,936,206, issued May 10, 1960; Iimura et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,896, issued Feb. 10, 1987; and Nyquist U.S. Pat. No. 3,456,995, issued July 22, 1969.
For example, Wilmer et al. disclose a cabinet with pocketing doors and comprising a vertical carrier hingeably connecting a door and slidably mounted to upper and lower rails mounted to the cabinet side wall. After the door has been placed in the open position, it can be moved rearwardly with the carrier into the cabinet.
Nyquist also discloses a cabinet having pocketing doors, wherein a scissor mechanism is mounted to and between the cabinet back wall and a rear edge of the door. A rod at the rear edge of the door is rotatably and slidably received in opposing channels within top and bottom walls of the cabinet to permit the door to pivot in opening and closing, and to guide the door when the same is moved in and out of the cabinet.
A common problem associated with cabinets having pocketing doors is that the doors have a tendency to tilt or rotate in a vertical plane. As a result, difficulty is experienced when opening and closing the door, and when pocketing and unpocketing the door and the door and the fittings therefor can be damaged.
To remedy this problem, it has been found desirable to provide a means for stabilizing pocketing doors to prevent rotation of the same in vertical planes. Such stabilizing means are known. For example, the U.S. patent to Stone, identified above, discloses a pocketing door pivotally and slidably mounted to upper and lower tracks by slide members secured to the doors, the tracks being mounted to the cabinet side wall. A pair of pulleys are mounted below the rear portion of the upper track and above the front portion of the lower track. A cable is threaded around the pulleys and has first and second ends attached to the slide members. The arrangement is said to prevent relative movement between the upper and lower slide members to prevent the door from jamming when moved in and out of the cabinet.
The U.S. patent to Iimura et al. also provides a stabilizing means for a pocketing door. A pair of rotatable pinions are mounted on upper and lower corners of the door and engage racks on the cabinet side wall to enable the door to be pocketed within the cabinet without jamming. The rack and pinion mechanism assures that the upper and lower corners of the door are inserted or withdrawn from the rack at the same rate.
Further, Wilmer et al. disclose a cabinet having pocketing doors and means for preventing undesired movement of the door. Specifically, the upper and lower rails have flanges extending along the full length of the rails. For each flange, a pair of upper and lower brackets are mounted on the carrier in spaced relationship thereby forming a slot receiving the respective rail flange. In this manner, when the carrier is moved along the rails, the pairs of brackets embrace the rail flanges to prevent excessive rocking movement of the carrier and thus the door mounted thereto.
For those cabinets with door pocketing assemblies wherein tracks or rails are used to guide the doors into the cabinets, Applicant has found it desirable to provide a means for aligning the open-out doors with the tracks for subsequent insertion into the cabinets.
It has also been found desirable to provide a pocketing door with a handle rotatably mounted to the door so that a user can grasp the handle to open the door and pocket the same while maintaining the orientation of the handle toward himself/herself for convenient and easy operation of the door.